But Saturday that all changed. Some kind of front is whipping up bad weather everywhere. When I call up the satellite image for the Caribbean, it is almost impossible to see any land masses underneath all the colored spots. It's everywhere and I fear a bad hurricane season this year. This is what was still sitting on top of us on Sunday.
It rained, nay, poured tropical torrential downpours all day Saturday. Not surprisingly, the pumps they installed underground in the new drainage system on Ave Hidalgo failed to work. The streets downtown filled with over 2 feet of water almost instantly. The new street has been constructed to direct all water to the intersections. The water had no where to go. It's sense of gravity had been changed and it no longer just flows out to sea. Needless to say, almost every business downtown was flooded and there were a lot of unhappy shopkeepers and restaurant owners.
During one of the few breaks on Saturday, I got this shot of the stormy sky and water. Our traditional blue topaz color gone.
And yet, in the evening it cleared off a little. It amazes me how such bad weather can turn around and produce such a beautiful sight.
Sunday, as I write this, the sun has come out but the skies are still a murky gray. I think there will be more to come. Thankfully it did clear up for a bit.
Tomorrow I will tell and show you how storms like this can hit close to home and cause no end of problems.
14 comments:
It does seem that the stormiest skies some times give way to the most beautiful sunsets. I guess that is the prize at the end.
We had a ton of thunder and lightning here in Tulum. Since we were inside it was nice to sit and watch.
On the news yesterday it looked like there was crazy weather over most of Mexico.
I find it interesting to read how much rain you get on your side of the country. We get our share, but not 2 feet of captive water. The potholes filled with water are what concern me. They have a tendency to collect some items that are not very tire (or foot)-friendly.
Guess they'll be tearing up Hidalgo again? Or else tourists can pack hipwaders for the rainy season! Beautiful sunset photo! Hope this hurricane season isn't a bad one in the Caribbean!
I hope you are wrong about a bad hurricane season this year! I will be there in October for two weeks and praying for nice weather. Not another Wilma!
In that we have so much rain up here in east mid-Mexico that drainage has figured itself out overtime - no thanks to engineering I might add - slopes and drainage computations do not happen here or apparently there. But there were pumps?
Oh well - stay dry amigo.
Rosas: strangely, we did not get thunder and lighting out of these storms. Just torrential rains.
Steve: Cancun gets the same kind of rains as we do. The flooding over there is intense after a heavy downpour. As far as icky things in the water, I've written about that before and how the dumb tourists confuse disease infected water with swimming pools.
LAB: huge pieces of the new Hidalgo collapsed under the weight of the water. Big sinkholes all over the place. They are indeed tearing it up again. It will never be done.
K: I pray the same thing. But I fear the worst.
High 90's!!!!! Is that all???? I'm leaving Merida to come over there just to cool down!
Merida Mikey
Wow, two feet of water...that is ugly.
It just makes me so sad that so much time, effort, and money gets spent on projects that are such a waste. It probably would have been better if they had left that street alone, is that true?
I am sending positive wishes for an easy hurricane season. I Have never been through one, but our "tropical depression" a little over a week ago was enough for me. The town is still cleaning up from it, there are tattered billboards and piles of chopped up trees everywhere. Good luck.
I hope you are wrong about the hurricane season and of course I will be thinking of you down there!! Sunset picture is beautiful, sorry its not under better conditions!! How often have you gotten flooded? Good luck and much prayers.
Hmmm... Hard to imagine someone actually designing a system requiring pumps to move water through storm drains. Big storms almost always knock the power out. What were they thinking? Sometimes engineering in this country fails to provide optimum solutions--or even workable ones.
I feel for the shop keepers, life is tough enough and this construction must be bring some businesses to their knees.
I remember wading through ankle deep water on Hidalgo and it looked like it was sewage infested. 2 feet, you would have to swim, dang near.
Always enjoy your blogs IslaGringo.
Hey gringo in paridise,
My wife wants to go to Isla Mujares. She is worried and wants to stay at an all inclusive.
Are there ant condos or houses for rent on the island? I dont want to be locked inside the walls of some resort!
Can you give me some leads?
Mike
Houston, Texas
Mike: send me an email
We were in Akumal when this storm hit on Sunday. We had gone to the beach after lunch anyway, even to sit in the clouds, when it first started to drizzle. I was under a palapa, so just huddled up. Ali came back from his swim, and it started pouring really good! We mad a mad dash for the bar palapa, and stopped there. Freakish amounts of rain began to fall! I thought the "something to watch" on the radar before we left MI had turned into a tropical storm for sure! Within 1 minute the pool was over-flowing and we were standing in 4" of water!
It continued on & off all night. I see it took 2 days to hit Isla.
Linda
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